This invention relates to a process for the production of carboxymethylated alcohols and alcohol ethers.
The method generally employed for the preparation of carboxymathylated ether alcohols and carboxymethylated alcohols is the reaction of alkali metal alcoholates with haloacetic acid according to the following equation: EQU RONa + ClCH.sub.2 -COONa .fwdarw. ROCH.sub. 2 COONa + NaCl
According to the state of the art, alcoholate required for this reaction are first produced from the corresponding alcohols in a separate reaction stage. In general, the production of the alcoholates is accomplished by reacting the alcohols with an alkali hydroxide (German Patent 975,850). However, when longerchain alcohols are used, the yield of the desired product during the subsequent carboxymethylation is greatly reduced. Therefore, it has frequently been necessary to react the alcohols with metallic sodium in order to obtain satisfactory yields during the carboxymethylation stage. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,183,853; British Patents 1,027,481 and 1,337,401. The use of metallic sodium, however, is expensive, complicated, and timeconsuming, and does not always lead to satisfactory results.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a process for the production of carboxymethylated ether alcohols and carboxymethylated alcohols in a single stage. It is another object to provide a process wherein in brief reaction times, high-quality products are obtained with high degrees of conversion, even in those cases where, according to the prior art, no degree of conversion or only poor degrees of conversion can be attained. Other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains.